Alonso Wins the Headline Grand Prix.

So did we learn anything from the first official test session? Not much really, not unless you have access to all the data, fuel loads, all lap times, tire wear and nobody is letting that out of the bag. However there was one very interesting fact I read about somewhere, Alonso did his best time, the best of the test session, during the very early laps of a very long run. That of course means the Ferrari F10 is quick on full tanks which is good news for Maranello. Another data point is that the Ferrari's were the only cars under the 1:12 mark.

But it's only the first test and Ferrari should be ahead of everyone as they were the first to drop development of the 2009 car to concentrate on the F10. There is also the looming issue of the rear diffuser protest...again. The Mercedes diffuser takes up the complete width of the space between the rear wheels while most others are significantly smaller, a little more than the width of the rear wing. Mclaren kinds of splits the difference, it is about same width as the others but then adds a hefty outside section. Something to follow but I wonder if with the thinner front tires this year it will not be more about weight distribution than ultimate rear downforce anyway.

One of our readers, Alex, was kind enough to send us some pictures from the test session and asked about the Pitot tubes teams are running and why some have three foot tall towers and other have a much lower sensor position. We guess that the point of the tall ones is to get the sensor as far out of the airflow influenced by the car as possible but certainly Renault, Mclaren are not dummies and physics are the same for everyone... any guess as to what's going on there?

I assembled some raw feed clips of testing, it's a lot of material with more after the jump. Big props to those who take the time to upload this stuff for the rest of the world to see, enjoy and get excited about F1. Enjoy the sights and sounds

Combined best lap times over the three day test session.

Pos  Driver            Team                      Time      
1. Fernando Alonso     Ferrari                   1min 11.470secs
2. Felipe Massa        Ferrari                   1min 11.722secs
3. Kamui Kobayashi     BMW Sauber-Ferrari        1min 12.056secs
4. Pedro de la Rosa    BMW Sauber-Ferrari        1min 12.094secs
5. Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes          1min 12.256secs
6. Robert Kubica       Renault                   1min 12.426secs
7. Michael Schumacher  Mercedes GP               1min 12.438secs
8. Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari        1min 12.576secs
9. Nico Rosberg        Mercedes GP               1min 12.899secs
10. Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes          1min 12.951secs
11. Vitaly Petrov      Renault                   1min 13.097secs
12. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth         1min 13.377secs
13. Nico Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth         1min 13.669secs
14. Sebastien Buemi    Toro Rosso-Ferrari        1min 13.823secs
15. Gary Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes          1min 13.846secs